Memory Care at Magnolia Place
Hawkesbury Living and the Richmond Club are holding a ceremony to open their unique new facility, Magnolia Place.
Inside the new Magnolia Place Memory Care Living Units to be opened tomorrow.
By Stephen Easton
Hawkesbury Living will open the first wing of a new residential facility called Magnolia Place Memory Care Living Units, at Richmond Community Nursing Home tomorrow in a ceremony at 10:30am.
The new $1.8m extension was named the Don McEwen Wing in honour of one of the nursing home’s original fundraising organisers, and consists of five new twin-share rooms. Another extension is planned that will add a further 30 beds to Magnolia Place in the near future.
Specialist building firm Paynter Dixon was tasked with making the project a reality, implementing a design aimed at enhancing social inclusion and avoiding a hospital-like atmosphere, and the associated stigma that goes with it.
The units are intended to have a cosy, home-like feel, with warmer colours, skylights and new paintings on the walls.
Magnolia Place is made up of what Hawkesbury Living and Richmond Club CEO Kimberley Talbot terms ‘memory care living suites’.
“At Hawkesbury Living and especially the Don McEwan Wing, we will be specialising in levels of forgetfulness or memory care, as it is referred to now within our facility, and not the undignified term ‘dementia care’,” she said.
Having shared rooms is another part of this philosophy, which Ms Talbot said is “less about clinical care and more about hospitality and fun social connections”.
“In aged care there is a great debate over whether elderly should go into single-bed rooms, which also decreases profitability. But it’s also about staying connected and talking to other people.”
“If you can get people out of the house, doing things and socialising, they’re less likely to be in the medical system.”
According to Ms Talbot, the Richmond Club and Hawkesbury Living offer a unique model of aged care, where residents are encouraged to engage with older club members who live in the community.
“Seventy per cent of our membership are elderly people in the community,” she said. “Connecting the club with the aged care facility counters loneliness and isolation, because aged care residents can stay socially connected through bowling and a whole range of other activities.”
“The Hawkesbury Living and Richmond Club model counters loneliness and isolation by providing opportunities to stay close and connected to others and be surrounded by people who offer encouragement, support, engagement and opportunities for improvement in their quality of life, whilst remaining connected to their community and loved ones.”
“We all benefit when elders remain engaged in the world.”
The ceremony’s 150-strong guest list includes members of the Richmond Club and honoured guests from the community including NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell, Member for Hawkesbury Ray Williams, Member for Londonderry Allan Shearan and the CEO of Aged and Community Services NSW, Jill Pretty.
